Judge in undercover police inquiry has motor neurone disease

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Pitchford had been appointed two years ago to head the inquiry. When he announced his diagnosis in February, he said he would be unable to complete the inquiry but intended to continue for as long as possible. The Home Office said Mitting would initially support Pitchford as a panel member “with a view to succeeding him as chairman of the inquiry.

The inquiry has been delayed as police have argued that much of it should be held in secret to protect the identities of the undercover officers and the techniques they used. The inquiry was due to have been completed next year but is unlikely to start hearing evidence in public before the second half of 2019 (pdf).

Pitchford and Mitting will have to take a series of decisions that will determine how much of the inquiry will be heard in private. They will decide whether the identities of individual officers should be kept secret.

Those who were spied upon have argued that the inquiry should be held in public as they want to know how the undercover officers behaved.

Mitting, who became a QC in 1987, has been a high court judge in England and Wales since 2001. Between 2007 and 2012, he was chairman of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, which rules on whether or not individuals should be deported from the UK. The commission has been described as Kafkaesque as it regularly hears secret evidence that can be used to deport individuals on grounds of national security without them seeing it.